


What Dreams May Kill

by illiana



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dreams, Gen, nightmares of alternate timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 07:19:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/695683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illiana/pseuds/illiana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TG: i had another nightmare<br/>TT: Let me guess.<br/>TT: A future, one without Sburb. One where you were unhappy with life, but resigned to it.<br/>TG: how the fuck do you know?<br/>TT: I had one as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Dreams May Kill

Streets, lights. Cars rushed by, her head pounding to the cadence they set. She needed to hurry and get to work already or she'd be fired. The satchel she had knitted for herself pulled at her shoulder, drawn down by the books held within. A strand of hair escaped from her headband and drifted into her eyes; she brushed it away, silently cursing herself. Not only was she late, but her hair looked like shit. She was going to get a lecture on professionalism. Again.

Being a psychologist hadn't quite turned out how she had expected.

~*~*~*~

He tapped away at a computer, squinting at the screen. He absently noted that he needed to go get a new prescription for his glasses, but it would have to wait until payday. He couldn't spare anything right now, not if he hoped to keep paying the bills. The whole cubicle thing kind of sucked, but hey, it was a job that put money on the table. It wasn't glamorous, but someone had to do it.

Comedy hadn't worked out. His joke store had crashed. Now the best job description he could think of for himself was "serious business entrepreneur," even if his job didn't exactly fit the definition of entrepreneur.

He was never going to admit that his dreams had failed him.

~*~*~*~

She smiled, forcing herself to look happy, hoping that if she smiled she could feel the emotion it was supposed to convey. The nursery wasn't that bad, really. Not as good as gardening, sure, but it was something. The humid air made it hard to breathe sometimes, but she grew up on an island. She could deal with it, or so she tried to assure herself.

Quite honestly, this job bored her out of her mind. She wasted time, sitting here hoping someone would want to buy a half-dead plant, maybe rescue a rose bush or a few tomato plants. When she could, she tried to help the plants and ease them back to health, but her efforts were ultimately futile. No one here cared. They didn't water them correctly, didn't keep them in the right places for what they liked... and some just couldn't stand the climate.

She wished she could help the plants, wished she could save them.

Most of all she wished she could have lived a different life.

~*~*~*~

He looked comfortable in his suit, he knew he did. His poker face was also impeccable. The glare that spoke of horrible things if the answers he wanted didn't surface immediately? He perfected that in his first week.

He was good at what he did, good at terrifying criminals into coughing up their answers. Even the hardened ones who thought they were so badass crumpled soon enough.

He might have been good at it all, but by no means did that mean he enjoyed his job. On the contrary, the gun felt wrong in his hand; he wanted to swing it instead of pulling the trigger. It wasn't often that he had to pull it out, and despite his discomfort he knew he looked dangerous with it in his hands.

Swords felt nice in his hands. Guns? Not so much. Sadly, the FBI had some ungodly rule that he wasn't actually allowed to carry a sword on him. Instead, they issued a gun and called it good, acting as if he couldn't do more damage with a sword than he could in the same amount of time with a gun.

His life certainly hadn't worked out well.

~*~*~*~

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 02:37 --

TG: lalonde you'd better be awake  
TT: I am.   
TG: shit, rose  
TG: i had another nightmare  
TT: Let me guess.  
TT: A future, one without Sburb. One where you were unhappy with life, but resigned to it.  
TG: how the fuck do you know?  
TT: I had one as well.

~*~*~*~

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 02:37 --

EB: jade  
EB: are you awake?  
GG: yeah  
GG: just woke up  
GG: i had a nightmare :(  
EB: i did too.  
EB: you first?  
GG: it's going to sound silly  
EB: so will mine.  
GG: well it was about if we never played sburb  
GG: what grown-up life would be like  
EB: that was mine, too.

~*~*~*~

TG: i don't think i would be able to stand it  
TT: Shh. It was only a dream.  
TG: it wasn't me anymore  
TG: it was someone wearing my skin  
TG: but it wasn't me  
TT: If you wish to believe that.  
TG: if it was a dream bubble, i'd be okay  
TG: but we left those behind  
TG: what the fuck even was that?  
TT: A dream.  
TT: You know, those things that drift out of your subconscious?  
TT: Not wandering across Derse or interacting with long-dead trolls.  
TG: stop lying  
TG: it wasn't like that and you know it  
TG: it was another timeline  
TG: maybe even the future  
TG: its how we would have been, how we might be  
TT: Dave, promise me something.  
TT: When we get out of this, if we ever do, never let me turn into that.  
TG: only if you don't let me be a shitty fbi agent who cant stand his own gun  
TT: It's a deal then.

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering tentacleTherapist [TT] at 02:50 --

~*~*~*~

GG: hopes, dreams, all gone  
GG: i dont know why anyone would want to live like that  
EB: i dunno either, jade  
EB: but i won't let it happen  
EB: not now, not ever.  
EB: we've come too far for this shit.  
GG: don't say that!!!  
EB: why not?  
GG: we don't know what's going to happen after the game ends  
GG: i don't want you to be wrong :(  
EB: all the more reason to say it.  
EB: i'm not going to let it happen.  
EB: not to any of us, you or me or dave or rose.  
EB: there are some things that shouldn't be possible.  
EB: that's one of them.  
GG: i hope you're right  
EB: i'll make myself right if i have to  
EB: i'll never let that happen to us  
GG: i'll try not to ever let it happen to us either  
EB: good

\-- ectoBiologist [EB] ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 02:50 --

**Author's Note:**

> Updating? What's that? Seriously though, I plan to update Half-Full Dreams, Half-Empty Hopes by next weekend. Hopefully. Maybe. After I get my research paper done.


End file.
